


But I Can't Help Falling In Love With You

by dboys



Series: Kurotsuki Week [6]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Mental Illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-08 00:29:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4283766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dboys/pseuds/dboys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey, what’s wrong?”</p><p>“It’s nothing, just… the person I love can’t remember me.”</p><p>“Then they’re stupid and if you love them enough and they love you, they’ll just keep falling for you and you’ll just fall deeper in love with them.”</p><p> </p><p>Kurotsuki week day 6: Falling in love over and over</p>
            </blockquote>





	But I Can't Help Falling In Love With You

**Author's Note:**

> Fic title comes from "Can't Help Falling In Love" by Elvis
> 
> Decided to do one of those 5 +1 things for this
> 
> Could serve as an epilogue for days 1-5

_i._

The first time Tetsurou asked who Kei was, he nearly cried.

He knew it was coming, Tetsurou had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a little over a year prior.

“HOW COULD YOU FORGET ME?” He was angry. “AFTER ALL THESE YEARS?!” He was confused. “IS THIS ONE OF YOUR STUPID JOKES?”

But Tetsurou just stared at him even more confused.

Kei took Tetsurou to the doctors the following day where they found out Tetsurou’s Alzheimer’s had progressed, slowly getting worse.  Twice in two days Kei felt like crying, except this time he did.

They told him that there wasn’t exactly anything they could do other than put him in a nursing home where people would be more capable of taking care of him. Kei shot that idea down immediately.

From that day forward, Kei was left to recreate memories with Tetsurou on a daily basis.

 

_ii._

Kei sat on the edge of Tetsurou’s side of the bed, thinking he was asleep.

“Who are you?” Those famous words that had become the new thing.

“I…” Kei sighed to face his husband. “I’m Tsukishima Kei, nice to meet you, what’s your name?” Calling himself Tsukishima felt so foreign now. He had been going by Kuroo Kei for the past 40 years, this was so different, so unsettling, thinking he wouldn’t have the same last name as his husband, who didn’t even know they were married in the first place.

“Kuroo Tetsurou,” He sat up straighter and reached out a wrinkled hand which Kei took lightly, shaking them up and down twice. “What brings you here?”

“I—“ He couldn’t say he lived there. “I live next door and wanted to know if you needed any help.”

Tetsurou grinned and Kei wanted to cry all over again. He missed that grin so much, missed the way it was directed at him, but now it wasn’t the same. “Someone as pretty as you could help just by sitting there.”

They both laughed and Kei felt the tears start to come. “You’re so cliché.” He sniffled.

Tetsurou stiffly moved in the bed to sit next to Kei . He placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing, just… the person I love can’t remember me.”

“Then they’re stupid,” Tetsurou said. “And if you love them enough and they love you, they’ll just keep falling for you and you’ll just fall deeper in love with them.”

“Yeah, I hope so.”

Two hours later, they sat downstairs at the television, watching some random show Kei had let Tetsurou pick out.

“Can I call you Tsukki?”

Kei looked away from the screen to face Tetsurou. “What?”

“Tsukki, am I allowed to call you that?”

He hesitated. When Tetsurou first started calling him Tsukki, he hated it, or so he thought. But by this point, Kei could even say he missed it. “Sure.”

“Tsukki, I think we have some spiritual connection,” Tetsurou placed his arm around him and it reminded Kei of those nights where they had just moved in together. “I get some kind of vibe that we knew each other in a previous life and were married or something.

“What I’m trying to say is: I think I love you.”

There is was, the three words Kei now looked forward to every day. “I think I love you, too.”

 

_iii._

It wasn’t every day that Tetsurou forgot who Kei was. Some days he was fine, back to how he was before any of this started happening. He started repeating and forgetting things, though, simple things.

“Hey, Kei, where’s my jacket?”

Kei frowned. “Why? Are you cold?”

“I—I think it’s over there…” Tetsurou answered himself and walked over to the other side of the room where his jacket happened to be.

Kei smiled a bit before going back to reading a book he had picked up.

“Hey, Kei?” Tetsurou called again.

“Yes?”

“Do you know where my jacket is?”

Kei put down his book and stood up to go over to Tetsurou. “It’s right here,” He picked up the jacket and handed it to Tetsurou who smiled upon receiving it. “You just asked that.”

Furrowing his brows, Tetsurou looked at the other. “Did I?”

Kei just nodded and stood there to watch Kuroo for a moment.

He put on his jacket and started to wander around the house until he got to the sliding doors that lead outside. Tetsurou clicked his tongue and opened the door, stepping out onto the porch.

“Tetsurou..? What are you doing?”

“I haven’t seen Dino all day, I’m gonna go look for her.”

Kei paused. Dino was a cat they had gotten around when they were first married, she had been dead for nearly 25 years.

Tetsurou frowned and turned around, taking off his jacket. “What am I doing here..?” He looked at Kei. “You’re not Kenma, where is he?”

“Uh, Kenma moved away.” _Like five years ago._

“He didn’t even tell me, damn, I wonder if he’s angry with me.”

“He did tell you, we helped him—you’re right, he didn’t tell you, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Now the question is, why are you in my house? Who are—wait I know you! You’re that Tsukki guy from Karasuno, you look a lot different, what happened?”

Kei caught his breath.

“Well, whatever, you’re still pretty.” Tetsurou grinned. “Did you come to confess your love to me?”

Kei hesitated. “Yeah, yeah. Kuroo Tetsurou, I love you.”

“Tsukki I am honored and happy that you confessed because I love you too.”

Well, at least he remembered who he was this time, even if it was when Tetsurou was 17.

 

_iv._

Tetsurou had gotten to the point where at times he had forgotten how to speak. Kei would walk up to him, ask him something and Tetsurou would just look at him helplessly.

At this point Kei was on the brink of tears every night. Each day was a step closer to losing Tetsurou, he didn’t want that.

He never wanted that.

It was selfish and Kei knew that. Tetsurou could’ve been in mass amounts of pain but would never tell Kei because he didn’t want to worry him or he simply couldn’t. With that at the top of Kei’s mind every moment of every day, Kei decided to take it upon himself to try and make Tetsurou as happy as he could.

They had had 40 years of a happy marriage, now Tetsurou was forgetting all of it. Kei was worried that he’d die without memories of what they had, how happy they were together.

That Tetsurou was the only one who could make Kei smile with a simple glance.

Even in his old age, Kei was still love struck. He loved Tetsurou in a way that no words could ever explain, and apparently Tetsurou was the same. That is, before he started forgetting everything.

It was so stressful. At times Kei just wanted to slap Tetsurou, yell at him for forgetting their relationship even though he knew it wasn’t Tetsurou’s fault.

The doctors said it was natural to be angry, but Kei couldn’t stop beating himself up about it. At moments he’d just snap and yell and he wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about “what if this is the last thing Tetsurou ever hears?”

_BANG_

Kei was brought out of his thoughts and went to the source of the sound. He was panicking, it was too loud to be something small.

It came from the bedroom, he rushed in to find Tetsurou on the floor, unmoving.

“Tetsurou!” Kei yelled, kneeling by his side. He had fallen on his face and Kei had to roll him over on to his back.

Kei began tapping him, trying to get him to wake up.

He was about the call an ambulance when Tetsurou opened his eyes and just smiled.

It was weak and sad, Kei wanted to cry. With shaky movements, Tetsurou reached for Kei’s hand and took it in his own. He turned it over so that Kei’s palm was facing upwards. Tetsurou began to trace kanji on to Kei’s hand.

It took him a moment, but he spelt _I love you._

 

_v._

The last conversation Kei and Tetsurou ever had went along the lines of:

“Who are you?”

“Tsukishima Kei, who are you?”

“Kuroo Tetsurou.”

Which is how it normally started out but this time it felt different. Tetsurou didn’t have his usual “charm”.

“I’m really glad I met you right now, I’m a lucky guy.” Tetsurou said, nearing the end of the conversation.

“Yeah, me too.”

“I just… wanted to fall in love one more time and ya know, remember them.”

He was speaking like he was never going to talk to Kei again, and at that moment Kei didn’t know it would be.

 

_+1_

Kei was the first to speak at Tetsurou’s funeral.

“When we found out about Tetsurou’s situation, I was terrified. Mostly for myself. I was selfish throughout the last few years. Not gonna lie, the first time he asked who I was, I cried and felt like crying every night since. But now I’m realizing that he got to fall in love with me all over again so many times, and it was always me so we must have been meant to be. And I got to fall even deeper in love with him.

“It was like we were teenagers, falling in love over and over.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry if I got anything wrong, i just researched Alzheimer's disease, I've never met anyone with it
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated :)
> 
>  
> 
> [my tumblr](http://hqhaikyuu.tumblr.com/)


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